Be an Online Oprah With OpenTok Video Chat WordPress Plugin

Tokbox, the online video communications platform, is on a roll. Earlier this year, we had reported how Tokbox decided to change it strategy from delivering an application to focusing on a pure API platform play. This paid rich dividends in an increase in number of partners taking to their platform and they moved later on enabling Video chat on Android and iOS devices. Tokbox has now gone one step further by implanting itself as a solid choice for enabling Video Chat on your site by targeting the millions of WordPress sites with a Wordpress plugin built on the TokBox OpenTok API.

The OpenTok Video Chat plugin enables live, group video conversations directly into your WordPress site. Once the plugin is installed, it allows you to start having video conversations with your audience. You can do video chat with 10 participants simultaneously while the rest of the site visitors can watch.

Ian Small, CEO of Tokbox summarized the need for the WordPress plugin quite well. “Any time you turn on the television you can see reporters and presenters from out in the field and in the studio come together and discuss the news of the moment," Small said. "Until today you couldn’t do that on WordPress.”

If you have a WordPress site, the potential for conducting video chat in a variety of formats now is a real possibility. Consider a few of the formats that you can now dream of:

Larry King format - presenter and spokesperson in different locations in front of audience

Service format - service provider with a customer

Oprah format - discussions or group interviews involving up to 10 people in different locations, in front of an audience

Tokbox is going about its strategy for becoming a video platform play in a systematic fashion. The WordPress plugin could be a master stroke since there are 30 million WordPress.org and WordPress.com sites. In other words, 1 in 7 of all websites is built on WordPress. It should be interesting to see how WordPress users adopt this plugin.

About the author:Romin Irani
Romin loves learning about new technologies and teaching it to others. Follow me on Google+